Typical automotive fuel systems have a fuel pump mounted within and received through an opening of a fuel tank, a vapor vent valve received in a second opening through the vehicle fuel tank and an over pressure relief valve and/or a recirculation outlet disposed in additional openings through the vehicle fuel tank. Additional vapor vent valves may be provided each disposed in a separate opening through the vehicle fuel tank and each constructed to communicate fuel vapors within the fuel tank with a fuel vapor canister outside of the fuel tank. The overpressure relief valve may vent to the atmosphere fluid or vapor from the fuel tank when an excessive pressure is developed in the fuel tank.
Each opening through the fuel tank provides a leak path through which hazardous hydrocarbon fuel vapors may escape to the atmosphere. Notably, a fuel tank may have a plurality of openings therethrough for each of a plurality of separate components thereby providing a plurality of leak paths through which hydrocarbon vapors may escape. Under increasingly strict governmental regulations, the emissions of these hazardous hydrocarbon fuel vapors to the atmosphere must be reduced.
Further, some prior fuel pump modules disposed within a vehicle fuel tank and containing a fuel pump are designed to break away from a flange assembly which connects the module to the fuel tank to reduce the likelihood that the flange will be separated from the fuel tank or severely damaged thereby permitting liquid fuel or fuel vapors to escape from the fuel tank. After breaking away, the fuel pump module may damage other components in the fuel tank such as a vapor vent valve, thereby damaging or destroying the other components.